Post-ash sidewall healing

Abstract

Methods of decreasing the effective dielectric constant present between two conducting components of an integrated circuit are described. The methods involve the use of a gas phase etch which is selective towards the oxygen-rich portion of the low-K dielectric layer. The etch rate attenuates as the etch process passes through the relatively high-K oxygen-rich portion and reaches the low-K portion. The etch process may be easily timed since the gas phase etch process does not readily remove the desirable low-K portion.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Prov. Pat. App. No. 61 / 362,776 filed Jul. 9, 2010, and titled “POST-ASH SIDEWALL HEALING,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Integrated circuit fabrication methods have reached a point where many hundreds of millions of transistors are routinely formed on a single chip. Each new generation of fabrication techniques and equipment are allowing commercial scale fabrication of ever smaller and faster transistors, but also increase the difficulty to make even smaller, faster circuit elements. The shrinking dimensions of circuit elements, now well below the 50 nm threshold, has caused chip designers to look for new low-resistivity conductive materials and new low-dielectric constant (i.e., low-k) insulating materials to improve (or simply maintain) the electrical performance of the integrated circuit.[0003]Parasitic capacitance...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]Methods of decreasing the effective dielectric constant present between two conducting components of an integrated circuit are described. The methods involve the use of a gas phase etch which is selective towards the oxygen-rich portion of the low-K dielectr

Problems solved by technology

The etch process may be easily timed since the gas phase etch

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